Lan Ling Wang, 兰陵王 Episode 3 Recap

I think what I love, nay, adore about this drama is that it’s a no holds barred, quick to the point drama that doesn’t make me want to strangle the emotionally stunted leads. I love that it’s not going to make me wait. Also – thank you my dear editor, elizaphantrex in advance.

We open to Lan Ling Wang (who is also called Si Ye, so from here out I’m going to call him Si Ye LLW for Lan Ling Wang), finding that one of his commanders Xu Da was kidnapped by the kingdom of Zhou (which Si Ye’s kingdom of Qi is at war with).

Meanwhile Xue Wu finds that Si Ye had left his mask at her place, the mask which he had told her helped him to become braver and act like a warrior on the battlefield. Xue Wu remembers her grandmother’s words about Si Ye being fated to die within the year, even though he will be one of the best warriors history has ever seen. Xue Wu decides that even if she might not be able to change his fate, she will do her best to help him be brave on the battlefield. She leaves the confines of the village in search of Si Ye LLW to give him back the mask.

Xu Da (the kidnapped commander from Si Ye’s fortress) is busy taunting his kidnappers while being tortured.

We learn that Xu Da’s execution is in a day in the city of Dan Zhou. Meanwhile Xu Da’s father is at Si Ye’s fortress, worried sick for his son but knowing that duty and honor prevent himself from leading a rescue. Xue Da’s father is a high ranking general, and though he knows that Si Ye is planning a rescue, he also forbids Si Ye from doing so. He acknowledges that his son is important, but Si Ye is even more important to the army and Xu Da’s father cannot justify losing good men even to rescue his son. He says that if Si Ye tries to go and rescue Xu Da then he, as Xu Da’s father, will commit suicide in front of Si Ye now.

Si Ye tells his men to prepare secretly. He grew up with Xu Da and is willing to go into the enemy’s country to rescue his friend and comrade.

Meanwhile in the Kingdom of Zhou we learn from the Zhou Queen and General Yu Shi Jiong, who captured Xu Da, that Xu Da’s execution is a trap for Lan Ling Wang (Si Ye). Since Lan Ling Wang never shows his face in battle and always wears a mask, it will be a good opportunity for them to finally learn what he looks like. Ever since Lan Ling Wang became commander, the Kingdom of Zhou has lost every battle to the Kingdom of Qi whenever Lan Ling Wang led the troops. They are sure that he will come for his friend.

The Queen tells Commander Yu Shi Jiong not to miss this opportunity to capture and kill Lan Ling Wang. Her husband the King (Yu Wen Yong) is actually not in Zhou, but at his Queen’s Father’s court in a neighboring kingdom, trying to raise troops. If they kill Lan Ling Wang, then the Queen’s father will give Zhou Kingdom more troops. Commander Yu Shi Jiong assures the Queen that they’re going to trap Lan Ling Wang in the city and kill him.

Xue Wu arrives in a border city where she realizes that she doesn’t have any money. She is rescued from a belligerent man who bumped into her by Han Xiao Dong (who we will call Xiao Dong from now on).

Xiao Dong asks if she has any friends in town, and if not then he’ll be her friend. Xiao Dong treats her nicely and even takes her to an inn where he buys her dinner. She asks about him and he reveals that he’s always trying to make extra money to take care of his sick grandmother, who can’t see at night.

Xue Wu smiles happily and says she knows a cure, and gives him some medicine. For a moment Xiao Dong looks troubled.

When the food arrives Xue Wu happily gulps down the milk, she falls asleep instantly. Xiao Dong whispers that he’s sorry, but he has to earn money.

It turns out that he, the inn keepers wife and the inn keeper have an agreement where Xiao Dong takes out of town girls to their establishment where they drug them and sell the girls to brothels. Xiao Dong looks troubled but leaves once he gets his money. (E: Well, I guess at least he looks troubled. Laaame.)

Xue Wu wakes up and realizes that she is locked up with a bunch of other girls. She and the girls are tied and they tell her that they will be sold shortly. An De Wang and Si Ye LLW arrive at the same inn. An De Wang asks Si Ye if they can really buy a girl at this inn. Si Ye replies they will be able to find some here, and these girls are probably ones who no one knows about, so they won’t be found out; they need to hurry because they need to go forward with their rescue plan.

They go in and tell the innkeeper the story that they are looking to buy a girl, one to be a concubine for Si Ye, whose father is ill. By buying a girl and marrying her they can bring luck and fortune to the family. (There is such an ancient tradition but more on that later.)

Xue Wu is busy thinking of ways to escape. First she cuts the girl’s ropes with the shards of a jar she broke.

Then she realizes that they can escape through the window, which has several bars of iron blocking the way. Xue Wu takes a long wet cloth and a piece of wood and shows the girls that through twisting the wood and cloth around two bars, she makes a big enough hole for the girls to slip through.

Just as An De Wang and Si Ye walk into the girl’s prison, Xue Wu has gotten all the girls free except for herself. The Innkeeper pulls her back and is tying her up again when the men walk in. An De Wang sees what Xue Wu did and says in a kind of awed voice, “What a really smart girl.”

Si Ye remarks that he knew of a girl who would do the exact same thing, she was really smart too.

The the innkeeper shows Si Ye the girl, who turns out to be Xue Wu. She says “It’s You..” and Si Ye immediately buys her to keep the innkeeper from beating her for releasing the girls. Si Ye tells the innkeeper’s wife to make Xue Wu pretty; he’ll have her tonight.

Cut to Xue Wu trying to open her ropes with her teeth. Si Ye totters in drunk and Xue Wu is outraged at his buying her. He shows her a table full of jewels and tells her that she can have all these pretty and expensive things.

She scoffs and tells him that she doesn’t want it. He asks if she’s been stuck in a village for too long; all the things are very valuable. She tells him that she’s wrong to trust him. He smiles drunkenly and tells her since his father is very sick, and since he is good son, Si Ye is going to marry a girl and have lots of sons to give good luck to his father and his family. He says that since he owes her one for rescuing his horse, he’ll repay her. Si Ye grabs Xue Wu and pulls her onto the bed and howls”Let’s have a taste of you!”

Xue Wu conks him out with a wash basin, and says, “Grandma says that you are supposed to be an amazing hero, but you’re just a pervert!” She kicks him and climbs out the window.

However on her way out she sees assassins planning to take Si Ye’s life. Even though she’s mad at him and wants to leave him to his demise, she reasons that he’s probably not that bad; he just wants a kid that’s all. She turns around and crawls back into the room to rescue him, saying “I must own you something in my past life, you idioit.”

She tries to wake him up or move him but he turns out to be too heavy. When the attackers come in, they get cold water thrown at them.

They go into the room and trip on a trap Xue Wu made, falling and breaking the table. Xue Wu grabs one of the swords and tells them to take the jewels and leave. Here is a translation of a hilarious scene.

Masked Men: If you leave now, we won’t kill you

Xue Wu (in a wail): I was going to leave, but I came back because I wanted to rescue him. Please, just take the jewels and leave

Masked Men: Stop talking! Aren’t you afraid to die?

Xue Wu: I am! but I can’t watch someone die!

Masked Men: I’ve never met such a girl who’ll die for a stranger.

The masked man gets ready to draw his sword and Si Ye gets up, telling them enough. He asks one of the masked men if Xue Wu isn’t one of the bravest and most loyal girls he’s ever met.

An De Wang unmasks and agrees. She asks if all this was a ruse to fool her. Si Ye bows to her in apology but says that they needed to do this.They needed to test her to see if she was capable. It’s all because they need someone to help with their plan. They need a smart girl because they are heading to Zhou Kingdom to rescue their comrade tomorrow.

Xue Wu hesitates and admits she only came to return the mask Si Ye left. She should get back or else Grandmother will be worried. An De Wang replies that Si Ye had just rescued Xue Wu from the innkeepers, shouldn’t she help them as well? Si Ye asks Xue Wu if she wants to see Lan Ling Wang, who she really admires. Si Ye’s friends look at each other in confusion (because Si Ye is Lan Ling Wang, only Xue Wu doesn’t know this fact). She says she really does and Si Ye promises that if Xue Wu helps him, she will get to see him. Xue Wu decides that since they are doing such a dangerous thing to help their friend, she will help them too. She smiles and realizes that she could meet Lan Ling Wang.

She asks what did they need her to do. Si Ye replies, “I need you to marry me.”

Si Ye and An De Wang go downstairs and talk about their plan, which is to get into the city by disguising themselves as a wedding party and rescue Xu Da. They talk to the inn keepers, telling them that Si Ye wants to marry Xue Wu in a celebratory fashion, so they need to help prepare the necessary things, such as palanquins, musicians and such. They will be leaving for the Zhou kingdom, for the city of Dan Zhou (where Xu Da’s execution is).

Si Ye also forces them to stop selling girls and do good deeds for the poor under the pain of death, which is very sweet of him. He also tells them to go and make his new bride pretty for her wedding day tomorrow. Si Ye worries for Xue Wu, saying that they kind of sprung this on her way too suddenly.

Thoughts: Fake weddings, kidnappings, funny rescues. This show has it all and I’ve loved every second of this episode. What makes this show so good is that it doesn’t make you wait, it gives everything and in so much detail and goodness. Also, regarding the marriage tradition, typically in china there is a huge belief in Luck. By marrying when there is sickness in the family, they are trying to use good luck to chase the sickness out. Marriage is considered a joyous occasion and such ceremonies are also said to be lucky. Children, especially sons are considered very lucky, so this is why the cover story says that Si Ye is marrying Xue Wu for luck for his family.

I’ve watched to about episode 16 and it’s all really good up to that point. I hope and pray that they are not going to introduce some floozy to get between the two. Also, as a slight teaser, I LOVE the King of Zhou AKA YU WEN YONG. Daniel gives such a tour de force performance that every time he’s on the screen he takes my breathe away. How could you simultaneously hate, love, pity, adore, and commiserate with such a broken, but wonderful character? In some ways Daniel’s Yu Wen Yong seems like a bit of Captain Jack Sparrow mixed with sorrow, anguish, helplessness and devious ruthlessness. His performance is off the charts amazing. I’m loving the second lead like no one’s business right now. There is something that pulls and pushes your heart–you want him to be happy but understand why he’ll never truly achieve it. In many ways he’s the abandoned child who is forced to grow up too quickly, saw too much blood and horror, and decided to rule the world in a cold and calculated way. Yet, in the deepest cracks of his heart lives a sensitive soul who wants nothing but to love and be loved, and to see others happy.

I’m totally shipping Lan Ling Wang and Xue Wu too! I want them to have a happy ending even though I’m guessing they may not have one (cuz period dramas like this usually have sad endings). LLW and Xue Wu are just so cute and wonderful together! I totally agree – chemistry is off the charts! 😀

Me too! she’s like the ultimate band aid to his heart. I think in some ways she brings the youth innocence and naïveté he hides so well to the surface. Even when he tries to act like a evil hegemony she brings him to his knees and makes him feel like a child who did wrong. She makes him question and rethink his way of life.

Thanks for the recap. Yu Wen Yong is indeed an interesting character. His outer appearance is cold yet his inside is yearning for love. I hate him but at the same time, I can’t help liking him. Such an awesome drama. Too bad it’s air during school times. And Lan Ling Wang is slowing falling in love with her. 😀

I LOVE the King of Zhou AKA YU WEN YONG. Daniel portrays him in such a tour de force performance that every time he’s on the screen he takes my breathe away. How could you simultaneously hate, love, pity, adore, commiserate such a broken, but wonderful character.

THIS, THIS, everything THIS! 😀 I can’t believe how much I’m liking and hating him at the same time. He’s such a fleshed out and interesting character and Daniel is an AWESOME actor. I can’t help but be captivated by his charisma OMG 🙂

Oooh, I been watching the series whenever I can and it’s SO EPIC AWESOME OMG! The story gets more interesting and I love how it delivers everything without wasting time. The script has many surprises and it’s just such a great story, with lots of seriousness, sadness, and fluffy/cute and humor at the same time. Our lead characters are fascinating and the cast is doing a brilliant job bringing the characters to life 😀

I REALLY love Ariel’s Xue Wu! I liked her from ep 1 and as the story goes along, I’m loving her character more and more! I sincerely hope that she gets a happy ending with Si Ye cuz I’ll be so sad if she doesn’t! I always liked Ariel as an actress (having loved her previous dramas), but I think her acting’s just getting better and better each time – I’m so amazed by how natural and lively she plays Xue Wu, and her chemistry with the male leads are wonderful! 😀

Last but not least, I’m really loving FSF’s portrayal of Lan Ling Wang. He’s so cute in his scenes with Xue Wu and he’s wonderful in all the funny scenes! (His facial expressions make me laugh hahaha). LLW is such a great hero – he’s tough when he needs to be, but also gentle and sweet otherwise. I love how he’s not only a great fighter, but a SMART fighter too. He’s strong but at the same time he has moments of sadness and loneliness, and sometimes he can be so awkward (e.g. with his love for Xue Wu) it’s so cute and endearing 😀

I’ve seen up to ep 16 and I LOVE how he can be so expressive just with his body language and his blinking eyes (or staring, etc.). It’s hilarious that they make him cover his head to toe with the black costume and so you can only see this fully covered black figure who only communicates with body language and his eyes. (Especially since he tries not to blow his cover and so doesn’t speak with Xue Wu). I think all this masking is a setup for future episodes, like maybe he goes into hiding and stuff … I’m hoping he and Xue Wu don’t die – I know history says he does but I’m hoping the drama has a happy ending (there are too many sad endings in period dramas)

Thank you for your great recaps! I’m so glad the episodes come out so quickly (LLW has the best airing schedule for a drama EVER!) and I know it takes a lot of time to write episode recaps especially for a long historical series like this! Thank you for your wonderful posts! 😀

Aw I’m glad u liked the recap! The episodes schedule is great for watching but in terms if recapping each episode is long. As a viewer I can’t wait to see more and more episodes but as a recapper, it’s a little but daunting.

I’m so glad so many people share my love of Yu Wen Yong and as for Feng Shao Feng, that boy’s eyebrow is doing so much acting that it should get its own Oscar. Next time watch the way that it arches, it’s really a beautiful thing.

Ariel is amazing, she makes playing a young heroine so believable that even her slightly weak reasoning is seen as a strength of her character. Some women cry really prettily on screen and it looks so fake but when Ariel does it it looks like true sorrow. She also has this way of looking like a lost child when she cries which is very touching.

Thank you for reading and commenting! It really makes my day!

llwfanAugust 21, 2013 at 12:20 am

Totally agree – Ariel’s crying scenes are beautifully performed. Many actresses just look pretty when they cry, but when Ariel cries, it makes you feel sad because it looks like she’s really crying (and not just dropping some tears prettily).

FSF’s eyes and eyebrows are awesome. They’re so incredibly expressive I’m captivated by them 😀
I never really noticed this when I watched his movies before, but with all the closeup shots in this drama, I can’t help but notice and it’s just like you said – those eyes/eyebrows deserve an Oscar 😀

Yuwen Yong is such a brilliant character and I’m so impressed by Daniel’s acting. He made such a complex character so charismatic I’m so torn between him and LLW. Of course ultimately I ship LLW/Xue Wu, but Yuwen Yong is such a sympathetic second lead I can’t help but like him too. He’s reminding me a lot of Liu Liancheng from Qingshi Huangfei….

Actually as the story progresses, I’m getting a lot of Qingshi Huangfei vibes, especially with the whole epic love triangle going on between Xue Wu and the 2 male leads. Add jealous/bitter/evil women to the mix and it’s getting like Qingshi Huangfei all over again with Qiyou/Fuya/Liancheng triangle…

I’ve been reading the baidu summaries and it seems like LLW is gonna turn into Chinese Zorro just as hinted by the whole masked warrior setup in the previous arcs (LOL)…

Zheng Er is a really really hateful character and I’ve never felt so many negative emotions towards a fictional character, but I hated her during the “bride choosing” arc and I’m starting to hate her even more, especially with what she does to many good characters, like poor Xiaodong (still heartbroken after finding out what happens to him, although I already guessed as much after watching the spoileriffic 40 min trailer!)…

I didn’t watch the trailer or read too much into Baidu! I was trying to keep an open mind because every time I do it makes me want to hurl something at my computer, hahah. I actually don’t know what happens to Xiao Dong but I’m pretty sure I won’t like it either!

As for Qin Shi Huang Fei I was beginning to dislike Wallace’s character after a while because he was obsessive to the point of being tiresome. And I think that there are several parallels that can be drawn between Daniel and Wallace but ultimately Daniel has the better character.

As for the jealous bitter women, sigh… I hope this drama doesn’t dwell too much on them but since I didn’t read to I much into it, I won’t know. Its one of those great temptations for me to open and read the summary but I don’t know if I can keep recaping if I do.

Also I think I’ve fallen in love w FSF’s eyebrows, just eyebrows.

llwfanAugust 21, 2013 at 1:31 am

Agreed – Yuwen Yong is a more interesting character than Liancheng because he has more depth. He has kingly priorities and not just an obsessive one-sided love.

I read the baidu summaries all the way to the ending, but the summary for ep 46 obviously left lots of stuff out which makes me think (or hope) that the TV series will have a different ending than the one in the summaries. The story’s gonna get so good and I look forward to seeing it happen onscreen! 😀

Of course, if I was writing recaps, I wouldn’t read ahead either so I understand what you mean. Watching the 40 min trailer already made me angry in places (I can’t believe how emotional I get over a TV series OMG LOL) and after reading baidu, I got even more angry. I swear the scriptwriter loves to torture the audience – this is one of the most torturous stories I’ve seen!

Poor Xiaodong. I liked him the first time I saw him and I got so sad after seeing the trailer and reading baidu. It makes me hate Zheng Er even more than I did at first! The first time I saw her it was only dislike/annoyance, but now I just can’t stand her. URGH. They need to give her less screentime because it’s becoming painful to watch her.

Ay, I know what you mean. The script writer is seriously sadistic but its so good that I feel like I have to see what happens.

as for the Floozy ( Zheng Er), I skimmed her back story and I think that they tried to make her as relatable (if that is even possible) as they could. I like her as much as I like mud pie made of bird poo and sticks.

llwfanAugust 21, 2013 at 12:01 pm

If the scriptwriter wanted me to relate to Zheng Er, than she failed because I can’t relate to her at all. I just caught up to ep 22 and I’ve never hated a character as much as I hate Zheng Er. She’s absolutely DESPICABLE and I feel disgusted just looking at her. It’s actually gotten to the point where I find it painful to watch every time she comes onscreen. I can’t believe a whole bunch of good people are gonna die because of her. But then again, Feng Xiaolian is noted down in history as a big reason for the downfall of Northern Qi, so of course many innocents end up dying cuz of her. *SIGH* Why do bad things happen to good people?

The scriptwriter is so sadistic. I can’t believe how much she makes Xue Wu and other good characters suffer while horrible people like Zheng Er and Gao Wei have free rein. *SIGH* I’m so torn – I want to keep watching to find out what happens next but at the same time I feel like I’m just torturing myself….

I NEED YUWEN YONG AND XIAODONG TO SHOW UP AGAIN SOMETIME SOON CUZ ONLY THEY CAN SOOTHE MY PAIN… (I know I sound exaggerated but if 20-22 were already painful enough, 23-25 is gonna be worse!)

Yeah Zhen Er is a piece of work. I still don’t know what happened to xiao dong but now I kinda don;t want to know, because I’ll just be sad. lol. I might skip it for a while before I’m emotionally ready to watch it.

I have to admit that my only experience with Chinese dramas are the episodes I’ve helped Rin edit on this blog. (Other than that, I watched the Korean drama Boys Over Flowers waaay back in the day). So I’m a character person, and Lu Zhen just wasn’t doing it for me (even in abbreviated recaps), because all the secondary characters were so simplistic–I mean, compleeeetely two-demential! I didn’t really care about what happened to any of them.

This drama, on the other hand, has already presented a complex cadre of leads, villains, and allies. If there’s one thing I love more than liking a lead, it’s hating their adversary–when that hate is conflicted by irrepressible sympathy then I know the writers are doing a good job. So I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out! Rin, you better finish this project (or I’ll spam you with angry texts very early in the morning)!

You want to tell us all that dramatictealeaves actually… gasp…. abandoned….gasp… Gao Zhan for this?!
And now he is being sent into the “sit and wait there” corner because of the guy who takes bath with his horse?!

I cannot blame her, though. The story is pretty, boys are pretty, girl is pretty and all of them (including the horse) have brains in this series which is so nice to encounter while watching the show. I am at disadvantage as I have no bloody idea whet they are all talking about untill I read it here but till now the show is managing to keep me entertained. and believe me, it is a very hard task to do.

So, is it the next episode where I think we will meet the third party of the love triangle? BTW, his acting reminds me Liu Liancheng’ character from Glamurous Imerial Concubine, especially when he was pissed as a wild boar. Not that I would complain about it, anyway.

Hahaha, I have to confess, I did kick GZ into a corner because I got really really annoyed with him and the general story of LZ. In my defense, LLW is probably the best drama I’ve come across in the past few years.

Serenite, you have to understand, in this story they get rid of villains faster than I can blink. There is no Shen Bi who overstays her welcome for about 45 episodes, no dowager who refuses to quit, no Shen Jia Min to kill my love for the two leads. I can’t tell you enough my delight for the last two weeks because the LLW’s story is fast and powerful, even Kdramas don’t have this kind of satisfactory feel to it. It’s almost as if they wrote the story and then re read it to see if its good and then shot it, instead of like LZ where they basically copied and pasted large sections and told the actors to maybe change their clothes so it might look like they’re doing a different scene. Kissing in LZ happened in ep 30 or something, where as the main characters in LLW are getting really married in ep 17 or so.

I love LZ and I’ll do mini recaps of it until I get to good portions but I think I might have fallen for LLW ( the show, not FSF).

Also, people in this show know how to LET GO or if they don’t then they die off rather spectacularly this is not something I can say for Lu Zhen. I really hope u can like it as much as I do!

Don’t worry, Rin understands she needs to finish the other series too, even though it’s painful for her. I’m encouraging her to look into a new format, in which she summarizes the uninteresting episodes in chunks/minirecaps, and uses her usual format for the best episodes remaining.

“I hope and pray that they are not going to introduce some floozy to get between the two.”

Alas, according to Baidu, the next 6 episodes are going to be about Zheng’er trying to get between LLW and YXW. But, to look at things in a glass-half-full way, since 3 episodes are aired a day, that means we can get to other things by Friday.